Purpose: To determine, from the perspective of ethnic and racial minority women, what they perceive as 1) key ingredients for meaningful community-based HIV prevention research collaboration, 2) ideal community partners and 3) how best to foster ongoing research collaborations. Methods: Sample consists of 14 women (seven African Americans and seven Latinas), members of a formalized partnership between inner-city communities and researchers. This Board, the Collaborative HIV Prevention and Adolescent Mental Health Project (CHAMP), funded by NIMH, oversees the designing, delivering and testing of intervention services. Ages ranged from 33 to 52. Individual interviews were audio recorded and lasted about 90 minutes. Participants explored their perceptions around involvement in HIV prevention research and made recommendations for enhancing research collaboration with university-based researchers. Data were coded independently by two coders following standard procedure for qualitative analysis (data sampling, finding themes, building codes and interpretation). Five members of the Board, four of whom were respondents in this study, reviewed the results for accuracy, thus validating the way in which interview excerpts lent meaning to the themes explored. Results: Themes found: 1) At the foundation of collaboration between community members and researchers there should be trust and commitment: “First of all, I would tell researchers, you know, when they are going into a community, the first thing, they would have to win over the community's trust.” 2) Community partners ought to come from diverse backgrounds, know the community and work on common objectives: “You have a lot of people from the Board with different types of strengths... doctors, professors, ordinary peoples …so whatever you need is basically there;” “If researchers decide to work with one community, they should educate themselves about the community;” “The way we are as one, that's what we should project in our community.” 3) Collaborative partnerships ought to portray an image of strength and cohesion, and a clear purpose around research projects: “Have plans being realistic. You want the people to see that you're realistic in your plan. That what you're putting in paper is working.” 4) Community input leads to a holistic approach to community health: “Collaborative approaches can help with other things, other problems like education.” Implications: To develop meaningful HIV prevention research, researchers need to establish long-term ongoing relationships with community collaborators from diverse backgrounds. Researchers ought to take a holistic approach working with communities, considering their specific interests vis-à-vis overall health-related community needs. This study shows how researchers can learn from minority women, a group often portrayed as disempowered and unaware of the needs of their own communities. Researchers can use these findings as a model for both developing better research partnerships and for empowering minority women. Acknowledgement:National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH 63662) and the W.T. Grant Foundation.